The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-02-12

;
tiful in death, to its last resting place,
the somberness of the grave was bright
ened by flowers fresh plucked from the
home garden, SO that the place had no
unwholesome terror for the little one
looking into it for the first time with
childish wonder.
The lessons conveyed by these two
ceremonies are just what modern society
sorely needs to learn. In the chaste
simplicity of the one and the sweet Sc
renity of the other is conveyed an efec-
tive reproof of the senseless display
usually made at funerals. Such inspir-
ing examples may, perhaps, still be few
and far between, but the very fact that
there are even now men with sufficient
moral courage to stem the tide of foolish
custom gives us ground for hope that the
day is not distant when enlightened
common sense and sincere grief shall
rule, instead of imperious fashion or
immemorial usage.
The funeral e0rtege reaches its desti-
nation, the cemetery, where every tomb
stone and vault, every shaft and statue,
erected in honor of the dead, are no
less eloquent memorials of the folly of
the living. Monuments of marble, gran
ite, iron, bronze, sculptured and nodded
in every conceivable shape, and en-
blazoned with epitaphs which ascribe to
the dead, whose bones lie beneath them,
every conceivable virtue, meet the eye
on all sides; and one might we'll won
der where the bad people, or even peo-
pie of only average goodness, are buried.
Sir Thomas Brownies shrewd aphorism,
MAN is a noble animal, splendid in
ashes and pompous in the grave finds
ample illustration on every hand.
There are, no doubt, very many ways
in which our cemeteries might be i'm
proved; but for the present purpose it
is sufficient to consider them only so
far as they afford a means for the ex-
preston of human grief, and to ask
whether, viewed in this light, the Gem
etery is not open to the same charges of
extravaganza, folly, and insincerity that
are sustainable against other incidents
Of modern mourning. An affirmative
answer being assumed, it becomes mat
ter for much regret that the advocates
of cremation seem so far to have over
looked one very obvious argument in
favor of the reform that they advocate.
The considerations by which cremation
shall recommend itself to this intensely
practical age must, of course, be chiefly
sanitary, REINFORCED, no doubt, by con-
siderations of convenience, and the eco
nomic unwisdom of devoting so much
valuable ground to improbable uses.
But when these arguments are supple
mented by the fact that the adoption of
this practice will do away with the cem-
etery and its costly monuments, the case
becomes exceedingly strong. Still, the
custom of erecting memorials to the
dead is so worldwide in its sway, so
venerable for its antiquity, so greatly
honored in its observance, that perhaps
it is yet premature to prophesy its early
downfall. AS the matter now stands,
with antiquity, superstition, and family
pride on its side, even the united forces
of reason and common sense must not
be expected to win an easy victory.
If, even admitting the truth of all
that has been advanced against these
memorials, it could be shown that they
do subserve some worthy purpose, their
abolition need not be pressed too strong
ly; but does any one imagine that the
dead lie easier for them, or that the liv-
ing are less bereaved? Is it possible
that we need these obtrusive reminders,
lest our loved and lost should find that
in the river of death flow also the waters
Lethe? Can it be shown that men live
nobler lives because of these silent moni-
tors of death? 1t was the custom to
engrave s.Siiste, 0iat0r' on ancient tombs,
perhaps from the same motive that led
the Egyptian, at the opening of ban
quet, to set before the feasters remind
er of death; but have we any proof that
the wayfarers of those days were made
more thoughtful, or that the revelers
put firmer restraint upon their passions,
because ofthese voices from the tombs?'
Were it proved that these memorials OF
the dead exerted any such moral infu-
ence, that might afford some ground for
hesitation. But since they neither do
honor to the dead nor tend to elevate
the thoughts of the living, but little
prophetic courage is needed to venture
the prediction that the time must come
when this relic of our early barbarism
will also have been discarded.
There is one other phase of modern
mourning remaining for consideration.
The grievous burdens laid by established
custom upon those whom death has be-
reaved do not end after the body has
been given to the grave. There follows
period of mourning as that term is
understood by the dressmaker-the Pc
riod of Grape Warrington which, re-
garded in any possible light, there is
absolutely no warrant or excuse what
ever. Every criticism, every charge,
that can be sustained against those stages
of the business of mourning, already
touched upon, applies with equal force
to the wearing of Grape as now in vogue
and furthermore, the practice is open to
objections peculiar to itself, and which
are sufficient to secure its universal con-
demnation, if people were not SO biased
by inherited beliefs as to be rendered
incapable of free action in the matter.
Here we find fresh illustration OF
the humiliating fact that our mourning
customs have in many cases added a new
terror to death, by requiring an expen-
diture which cannot be afforded without
depriving the living of that which is
necessary to their life, or impairing
their resources to very painful degree.
The luxury of woe, to possessors OF full
purses, may be as attractive luxury as
any other, and black attire is doubtless
not unbecoming to certain styles Of
beauty; but for the family of limited
means with possibly half dozen or more
children to be attired in suits of the pre-.
scribed color, compliance with custom
| in this respect too often involves crue